Route 518 Bridge Work Slated to Begin Again at End of November

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Work on the Route 518 bridge between Rocky Hill Borough and Franklin Township allegedly will begin before the end of November.

An exact start date has not been provided by the New Jersey Department of Transportation, but officials have been in contact with the department and were told the project would start soon, Montgomery officials said today.

Work on the bridge spanning the Delaware & Raritan Canal began on July 6 and was scheduled to have been completed in about four weeks. Gov. Chris Christie froze work on all state-funded projects less than a week later.

Residents held protests at the bridge on a daily basis starting in August. In September, the Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders announced that it was in talks with the DOT to offer stopgap funding for the project so that work could as negotiations to fund the state’s transportation fund continued. In October, the state legislature passed a bill that was signed by Governor Chris Christie increasing the state gasoline tax by 23 cents a gallon to fund the transportation fund.

County and local officials said the gas tax increase and renewal of the funding eliminated the need for the Somerset County Freeholder’s offer to pay for the bridge repairs.

The project contractor is in the process of putting the schedule together. The NJDOT is then expected to make an announcement about the exact start date for the work, officials said.